Iowa Pheasant Hunt

I'm looking to plain a trip out to Iowa this fall for a pheasant hunt. I'm from Milwaukee, WI and I've been told that Iowa is a very close second to South Dakota when it comes to pheasant hunting and would be half the distance for me. I've never hunted TRUE wild pheasant, my dog and I spend the majority of our fall hunting northern WI for the elusive ruffed grouse and central WI at public grounds where pheasants are released or at a game farm. I've done some research on my own for what part of Iowa I should go to and public lands to hunt but I'm not finding much. Hoping for some help and guidance on this topic. I'd like to know what part of the state I should be focusing my attention for the best experience, maybe recommend a place to stay, parcel of land to hunt, farmer to ask, etc.

Roadside counts are due out in the first week of August. Last years harvest was up 30%. We flushed a ton of hens last year, with the mild winter and easy spring, I am hoping they all made lots of roosters !

The 125.00 isn't that bad really... close enough (5 hour drive ) to make it over there 3- 4 times a season for a couple long weekends. Most days with some hard work in the fields you come away with a limit. It's equal to planting 5 roosters at a game farm for an hour shoot !? But can't compare to the amount of birds flushed and the quality of a hunt. Will be out one more time this year for another 4 day adventure....

I fell like the area we hunted could be great pheasant hunting if the DNR spent a little money on planting additional roosters. Just to keep the huntable numbers up and help to keep numbers stronger. Plenty of space and food to support the numbers.

Made my first trip to iowa for pheasant this past weekend. 4 guys 2 dogs (1 in training) hunting Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Didn’t get as many roosters as we had hoped, but seen a ton of birds. Probably flushed on average 60-80 birds a day, but almost all of them where hens. We figured we were flushing a 15:1 hen to rooster ratio. The birds didn’t really sit tight either…tough to get the roosters to flush. They kept running which resulted in them flushing just out of range. All in all plenty of birds out there, but would have liked to seen way more roosters.

Dogs, gave the prairie every ounce of energy they had. My 2 year black lab is beat, he’ll be spending the day on the couch I'm sure!